After the whirlwind of activities over the Memorial Day weekend, the kids and I came to a collective agreement that the first four days of summer vacation would be a free for all. I didn't have specific activities planned for them nor designated snacks although there was plenty of food in the house. They did surprisingly well with the lack of supervision or direction those first few days. It was helpful that my sister picked them up a few times to run errands and to go swimming, though.
This week is everything ZOO! I prepared templates for them to make zoo animal puppets. I created ZooYoga for an family fitness activity. There are ants on a log and animal crackers and yogurt and frozen chocolate dipped banana's prepared by yours truly. I gave them the idea of setting up an animal hospital and they ran with it as soon as they got home last night. Alex and Eva were both surgeons and Layla was really excited about being Doc McStuffins. Their dad took them to the dollar store before they came home on Sunday and each of them picked out something they could use for the zoo week. Alex had some craft items he received for Christmas that were animal related. He brought those out to work on this week too! There are some really cool clay magnets that they have requested my help in painting. I'm actually really excited about this.
On Friday, I will be taking the day off work so we can do a field trip to the actual zoo. It's been a few years since I've been there, so I've tasked my sister with making the plan for the day. I've already received text messages from her regarding the mapping out of activities for the day. I think she's on board.
It's things like this that make me grateful for all my years working as a camp counselor. Each year I attempt to do something similiar to this, but I think this might be the best year for it. The kids are old enough now to understand and appreciate the activities. Any Layla will be home all summer and all of these ideas are new to her. That gives the rest of the kids and myself a renewed purpose in these activities.
I'm grateful today for the next few slow days at work. This gives me the opportunity to catch up on some things and plan for the next week.
Sticking to the budget is always the hardest part of planning activities. But I'm doing my best to maintain a strick spending plan. We are hoping to take an extended weekend to celebrate my parent's 40th anniversary and I'd like to take the kids on a short road trip this summer through southern Illinois into Kentucky and spend a day and night in Indiana (a new state on our visited map). This all costs money, so sticking to the budget now is crucial for these future trips. Not to mention the cost of education, books and back to school supplies....Ahhhh!
In God I trust.
Last night, I read some of Dr. Seuss's "If I Ran a Zoo." Layla responded fairly well to it. I then let her have some tablet time and within minutes, she was fast asleep.
They are all well rested today and I'm hopeful they will enjoy the zoo related activities laid out for them today.
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